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Finished the book today. Feels hard to believe it's been six years since I read Feast for Crows. I don't know if the payoff was worth the wait but at least I enjoyed the book. Theon chapters ruled. I really liked the CoK Theon chapters because the character is written with a distinct voice and perspective, and it really came out in the early chapters when the old Theon flashed out while treating with the ironborn even though internally he was a shattered man. Barristan the Bold also ruled. What a badass. I thought the Arya/Cersei/Jaime chapters were almost completely unnecessary in this one aside from resolving (some) cliffhangers left over from Feast. I would say the same about Victarion's chapters except that I think it makes sense the chapter where he meets Moqorro was saved for the book in which Moqorro was introduced. I actually liked Victarion stomping around in this book a lot more than the previous one. Davos getting to live was a nice touch but I kept looking for his chapters and was bummed not to see any in the second half of the book. Same with Bran; I never cared for him much as a character in earlier books but the few chapters he had in this one ended up interesting. Asha and Griff chapters were alright. I never cared for Asha as a character really and Jon Connington is a boring dude. Laughed at Quentyn Martell's storyline all the way through, but he probably shouldn't have been a POV character and if anything his storyline ruined all of the Dorne events in Feast. The three characters I was most excited to read (Jon, Dany, Tyrion) had the three worst storylines in the book. Tyrion rules when he has something to do or when he's thrown into the thick of things, but in this book he just got kicked around on the sidelines and eventually I lost hope of him doing anything important. Jon's plot was a little better and it was nice to see him in charge and doing his best to rebuild the wall, but his chapters were so repetitive that you could cut out half of them without losing much of the plot. Dany was the worst, and her storyline was just so frustrating to read. So many bad decisions! At least it ended with the hint that she'll be kicking some major rear end down the line. I haven't read these books close enough to talk about crazy theories but some of them are pretty interesting to read. Didn't know about Sandor still being alive until I read some of the earlier pages, for example.
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Jul 15, 2011 08:31
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Yeah lol I did a little double-take there when she said that. I'd thought Dany was one of the more level-headed characters in the series until this book, but once I saw that line I knew she was going to be in for some serious poo poo in Dance. But that's not terribly unrealistic either. We all know people that have dated douchebags.
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Jul 15, 2011 20:46
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He could still want to gently caress her while being physically unable to.
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Jul 16, 2011 04:52
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One thing I noticed was that occasionally some esoteric word like "vainglorious" would be dropped into a chapter and then the same word would get repeated in the very next chapter. Happened a few times and it's something I noticed in his previous books too.
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Jul 16, 2011 08:33
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fanged wang posted:i thought malazan was unreadable from the start i get what the dude was going for but ppl throwing your books in the garbage is the risk you run making your books obtuse and inaccessible on purpose It doesn't help that the first Malazan book was written ten years earlier and isn't written as well as the following books in terms of getting the story across. It's not a hard series to get into if you just let events happen as they do. I read GOT before Malazan and while I like Erikson's series better (largely because it's actually resolved), the first three books of ASOIAF are excellent at telling a surprising and engaging story. With that said I think the best book in both series' is the third (Storm of Swords and Memories of Ice) for completely different reasons. Martin is a better visceral storyteller and he tells a more focused story, in part because his chapters are limited to just one character's point of view. Erikson is a better scene-setter and he knows how to put in a ton of cool poo poo into every page. Storm of Swords has the Red Wedding which is awesome; Memories of Ice has a siege in which a squad of rooftop defenders killed so many guys that the building they're standing on is literally sagging down from the weight of all the corpses packed into it which is awesome for an entirely different reason. They're both genre standouts and I would be hard-pressed to rank one over the other.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:43
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Are there really people who are so attached to the idea of a "pure book ending" that they're refusing to watch a hugely popular TV show based on that story just out of principle? Because if so, I'm happy to spoil the poo poo out of the show for them.
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Apr 7, 2015 21:53
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I could understand not wanting to be spoiled on a TV show plot that was written ten years ago, it makes sense why TV viewers might not want to read the books. But book readers avoiding the TV show because "the show's not the books" is hilarious to me.
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Apr 7, 2015 21:57
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Yeah I like FFC more than COK. Can't remember anything from Clash that wasn't one of Tyrion's chapters.
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May 7, 2015 03:12
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Kellanved posted:Anyone have a link to that golden hand/goblet youtube? I've got your back buddy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lz3lAd2nGQ
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May 14, 2015 02:17
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I like Preston Jacobs because his videos enable me to pretend the fourth and fifth books had things happening in them.
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May 16, 2015 02:34
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Littlefinger's dumb plan makes even less sense now. Why on Earth would he tell Cersei that he found Sansa Stark? I just don't see the gain in that at all. For that matter, four episodes later I still cannot figure out why Sansa would have agreed to marry Ramsay period. Is she marrying him in an attempt to kill him...? I'm surprised by the extent to which the show was willing to fully commit Sansa into the Jeyne Poole story, rape and all.
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May 18, 2015 19:42
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Littlefinger marrying off Sansa to Ramsay just for the sake of being able to tell Cersei "Sansa Stark is marrying Ramsay Bolton!" to convince her that the Boltons are traitors is so dumb and convoluted that I would have to think there is some other wrinkle to it.
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May 19, 2015 03:49
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The two motives the show has given us for LF to marry Sansa to Ramsay are 1) so Sansa can get revenge on Ramsay by... getting raped I guess and eventually ??? and 2) so LF can tell Cersei that the Boltons are marrying Sansa so she gets mad at the Boltons. If Sansa's story plays out like Jeyne's does with Theon eventually rescuing her, then all this plan accomplishes is 2), get Cersei mad at the Boltons. I'll wait to see if some big twist comes out of this master plan but so far color me unimpressed.
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May 19, 2015 21:49
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I have mixed feelings about the scene. I think it is a big change for a big character in the story, and a change for the worse. At the same time, if they're going to have Sansa marry Ramsay... there's pretty much no way around having a scene like that without it marginalizing the impact of the abuse even more. Like, if this scene wasn't in the show would they have some dialog next week between the Boltons about "don't rape Sansa so much?" Would they just pretend it didn't happen? I'm not sure what the critics were expecting. The scene in the book is even worse in terms of graphic action.
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May 20, 2015 23:27
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Max posted:Sitting on the books to allow the show to poo poo the bed actually seems like a good business strategy all of the sudden. Having seen this season unfold has given me a newfound appreciation for the books. Knuc U Kinte posted:How much of a sensitive little retard do you have to be to not understand why the sansa rape was bad.There was a bad rape you little dipshit stop qqing and looking around at other movies to prove it wasn't bad, you look like an asshat. He's talking about the people complaining that the camera hanging on Theon makes him the victim instead of the person getting raped.
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May 21, 2015 23:32
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Knuc U Kinte posted:Yeah so? He's saying that to defend his precious raping. Learn to read before you call other people retards.
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May 22, 2015 00:07
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I always got the sense that nobody knew how to make Valyrian steel itself but once you have some it's no big deal melting it down and reforging it.
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Jun 1, 2015 20:12
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I'm still not sure why Dorne is even in this season, as every element of Doran's plans (Quentyn marrying Dany, Arianne courting Aegon) has been cut out. There's really no angle for him to have any kind of plan in the show, at least not that I can see.
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Jun 3, 2015 23:38
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I would have rather seen the Ironborn stuff with Euron, instead of them shelved until the next season. It would take up about as much screen time to show the Kingsmoot, Euron sending his ships out and raiding their way over to Dany, and it would be more relevant to the story than Jamie and Bronn farting around in Dorne. Maybe my opinion will change in the next few episodes when the Dorne plot is resolved.
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Jun 3, 2015 23:47
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Knuc U Kinte posted:Mercy was written when he planned the time skip so Arya is 5 years older. Good job imagining pedophillic scenarios for no reason though. Arya isn't going to be five years older when that chapter is published in TWOW.
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Jun 5, 2015 01:52
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It's a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter. No reason for me to think it's a deleted scene or something.
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Jun 5, 2015 02:01
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At this moment I don't know what would be more awesome: killing Jon Snow and then resurrecting him in the same episode to get all the book people waiting for years hyped, or killing Jon Snow and leaving him dead for at least a year so that everyone gets to cry salty tears over cliffhanger endings.
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Jun 9, 2015 21:00
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They should have at least done Manderly and the Frey Pies. Winterfell feels really empty without all those northern lords hanging out and shooting the poo poo.
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Jun 11, 2015 04:52
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CharlestheHammer posted:I honestly couldn't remember if that was how he was or I was letting the show take over my memories of him. Tyrion at one point says in the books that he never heard Kevan express a thought that Tywin hadn't already had first. I think it's suggested in a few places that Kevan would have been a good enough lord on his own but was outshone by Tywin.
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Jun 12, 2015 00:25
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I think the Shrouded Lord being Gerion Lannister is one of Preston's more plausible ideas (dunno about all the moon dream stuff though). Tyrion has a lot of dreams about the Shrouded Lord in chapters where he's also remembering his uncle Gerion who taught him how to tumble before going away to Valyria. One of the guys Tyrion travels with also mentions offhandedly that the Shrouded Lord enjoys a good laugh, a description that meshes with what Tyrion remembers of his uncle.
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Jun 20, 2015 00:17
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Ague Proof posted:GRRM talks about how he originally wrote a very good, evocative chapter where after Tyrion falls into the Rhoyne, he goes into a kind of purgatory and meets the Shrouded Lord. Tyrion makes the Lord laugh. In return, he rewards him with either his life or by sparing him from greyscale. GRRM kept debating whether to leave it in or not but eventually decided to cut it since it would go against a theme of the series -- divinity either has a pseudo-biological explanation (Bloodraven as Old God, giant turtle god) or it's left ambiguous whether they actually exist like R'hllor. Yes to both. Tyrion has a few dreams of the Shrouded Lord and in those dreams he has Tywin's face, or sometimes shifts to Tywin. We don't know what Gerion looks like but it's not too big a stretch to think he might resemble Tywin. Gerion was the guy who taught Tyrion to cartwheel, which was a big hit with everyone at Casterly Rock (including Cersei) except Tywin. Gerion was Tyrion's favorite uncle and seemed to like Tyrion more than any other Lannister did too. So I sorta like the idea that Gerion went to Valyria and ended up as the Shrouded Lord, and spared Tyrion because he likes his nephew. It's also a cool theory because Gerion is one of the few guys who gets mentioned a few times as missing but not necessarily dead, sorta like Benjen is.
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Jun 20, 2015 01:58
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After my latest reread I like the odds of Littlefinger and Varys being secret buddies. They never get in each other's way and in the first three books they act in lockstep. Book 1 they tag-team Ned into burying himself through court intrigue, book 2 they both work to secure King's Landing against Stannis, book 3 they line up the Lannisters and knock them down like dominoes (Littlefinger gets Joffrey and Varys practically throws Tyrion into Tywin), and they each rescue a big political prisoner from KL. Near the end of Feast Littlefinger mentions he thought he would have some more time for some of his plans to hatch, and it comes off like he's saying Cersei hosed things up more quickly than expected, but he could easily be talking about Aegon landing in Westeros earlier than expected. The epilogue of ADWD makes it clear that Varys was happy enough to let paranoid Cersei stay in power for a while and only moves against Kevan because he could actually consolidate some of the Iron Throne's power again. It seems like these guys are just way too comfortable walking in lock-step with each other.
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Jul 5, 2015 13:07
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I don't think we've been given enough information about Varys to figure out his grand plan yet. Him being a Blackfyre supporter or whatever doesn't really jive with me, it seems like Varys was already very comfortable in King's Landing and he doesn't seem like a particularly prideful or patriotic or loyal guy. I still wonder what he thinks he's going to gain with Aegon in power that he didn't already have with Robert or Tywin around. A lot of people take him at face value about "doing what's best for the realm" and it's echoed by what Varys tells Kevan about Aegon on the way out, but I don't really believe that Varys is much of an altruist. This is someone who came up as a Prince of Thieves and has a vast network of muted spies that he probably kills once they reach a certain age. Varys is painted as a good guy but really he's pretty much doing the exact same things as Littlefinger, just in different areas. In fact the two guys are running parallel plays in the books to the point where the last time I read them I was convinced the two were actually working together. It's amazing how frequently they're not only not getting in each other's way but actually working toward the same goals. Littlefinger and Varys both goad Ned into looking into the Lannisters and politically over-extending himself. Varys always appears to advise caution but when he does he drops some extra info that pushes Ned forward. Book two Varys and Littlefinger are in Stop Stannis Mode, Varys aids Tyrion in any way he can on the domestic front while Littlefinger goes abroad and secures allies in the Tyrells. Book three Varys and Littlefinger line up Lannisters like dominoes. Littlefinger arranges for the Joffrey poisoning and kills Sansa. Varys is supposedly forced by Jaime to free Tyrion, but whether or not that's the case, he all but pulls Tyrion's crossbow trigger for him by sending him into the Tower of the Hand. Books four and five we have the two working on different regions of the world. Littlefinger set up fake Arya for the Boltons but has the real Lady of Winterfell tucked away in the Vale; Varys does nothing while Cersei destabilizes King's Landing and then steps in only to keep KL from stabilizing again, so that Aegon can swoop in. There's a line near the end of AFFC by Littlefinger in which he implies he had a bunch of plans brewing but he expected to have a few extra years for them to pan out. It's suggested in the text that it's Cersei loving things up too fast that's the problem, but he could also be talking about Aegon's early and unexpected arrival in Westeros (originally Aegon was going to track down Dany). If Littlefinger can contrive to wed Sansa to Aegon, he could bring in a huge fold of the kingdom to their cause and he would have the Queen of Westeros under his influence.
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Jul 6, 2015 21:43
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I don't think it was a physical issue that prevented Jon from drawing his sword. There's a difference between holding off three guys in sparring, when you're prepared and they're not trying to kill you, and defending yourself from an unexpected betrayal during a chaotic situation. He's pretty obviously stunned by what's going on and his immediate observation is that his attacker is reluctant. Jon hasn't figured out what is happening yet and that's what slows him down.
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Jul 14, 2015 05:11
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Most of the Northern Lords know Jeyne isn't really Arya, but 1)they have no one figure who can oppose the Boltons, let alone the Iron Throne to rally behind, and 2)Most of them still have family members being held hostage at the Twins, meaning if they don't play along with the Bolton farce, Bolton's good-father Walder Frey may never send those family members back. The whole "fake Arya' thing happened quite a lot throughout pre-modern times, the Boltons want some legitimacy over their lordship of the North, and marrying into the family of the last Lord Paramount, even if it's only the veneer of legitimacy works fine. As we can see in Dance though, plenty of Northern lords see through it or still refuse to support the Boltons, as evidenced by Roose starting to sweat bullets as Manderly gets more and more brazen, insulting his Frey allies. I don't think most of the northern lords know about the Jeyne/Arya switch. Lady Dustin almost certainly does, but that may be it at the actual wedding. Northerners not at the wedding definitely thought it was Arya getting married. If not for "Ned's little girl" I don't think the Liddles and other mountain clans would have joined Stannis. It's a tricky situation to peel apart because, like you said, northern lords who suspect Bolton is up to no good would be pressured to go along with the ruse anyway. I just don't think there's enough textual evidence to suggest that the lords were skeptical. Most of them had not known Arya too well and a lot of them would probably take it at face value that "Arya" was finally returned to the North from King's Landing.
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Jul 22, 2015 21:39
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Krinkle posted:Looking that guy up, and, okay I know him. It's good but it's hurt by its very abrupt ending. Definitely worth watching.
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Aug 1, 2015 20:55
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I know it's a popular joke to make but seriously, Sanderson would do a horrible job with ASOIAF.
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Aug 2, 2015 22:09
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As a fan of both authors, the Malazan series is good and ASOIAF is also good, why can't we all just get along? gently caress Wheel of Time though, that series was anime as hell.
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Sep 1, 2015 03:01
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Solice Kirsk posted:This seems to happen a lot. Wasn't Naked Lunch written by a bunch of authors trying to out do each other in crazy and sewn together by Burroughs? Or is that a different book I'm thinking of. Besides Game of Bones. From what I remember from a Ginsberg biography I read a while ago, Naked Lunch was all Burroughs and it took Ginsberg ages to find a publisher for it.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:21
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From what I've seen of what has been discussed for season 6 it sounds a lot like the other half of feast and dance that was cut. Riverlands/bwb stuff, greyjoys, maybe joncon and a lot of filler for Tyrion, Dany and the nights watch. I would be surprised if the majority of content is new.
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Sep 7, 2015 22:51
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Please let us get White Walker Jon Snow.
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Sep 13, 2015 06:29
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Krinkle posted:Something that confused me and is now sticking out in my memory, when Tyrion hears Aegon sailed west instead of going to Danerys, why did he think "haha whaat? Did he take the bait?" It implies that he also thinks "what a dumbass haha I owned him with my clever joke". A fair amount of people speculate that Tyrion sent Aegon over to Westeros just to gently caress some poo poo up early because he's a drunk embittered rear end in a top hat at the start of ADWD. The whole chapter where he gives Aegon advice he implies that he shouldn't be trusted, meanwhile his lesson at cyvanse is "don't ignore the dragons" which is contrary to the advice he gives. So it seems like he's feeding Aegon bad advice intentionally, which is why he's a little surprised that Aegon and JonCon ended up biting. His advice isn't particularly great for Aegon. The Targaryens have a long history of wedding brother to sister and Dany even starts off the story more or less indifferent to the prospect of wedding her brother. Aegon isn't even that closely related to her, all he would need to do is convince her he's actually who he says he is. His claim is way better than Quentyn Martell's, it's unlikely Dany would sideline him the way she did with Quentyn just based on the name he'd show up with. Tyrion may not hate Aegon personally but he definitely hates his sister back at Casterly Rock, as far as he knew at the time he would be going west with Aegon. Tyrion really has no reason to care one way or the other if Dany makes it to the throne; showing up with Aegon gets him back west and gives him a crack at ruining Cersei's day and possibly reclaiming Casterly Rock. Then Jorah goes and fucks it up. Basically he urges Aegon into doing something that really only benefits himself, instead of Aegon's long-term plan which would have been better for him and Dany.
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Oct 12, 2015 06:11
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Blind Marvin posted:I like the first part of what you're saying here, but I think you landed at the wrong conclusion. Selmy and the Shavepate run Mereen, but I don't think their roles or even their positions in Meereen will matter much after the siege is over. Having Tyrion run Meereen instead will leave Show Tyrion in the same place after the siege as Book Tyrion, conveniently skipping over any Faegon meeting, cartwheeling, pig-riding, and (possible) daughter loving they don't want to bother with in the show. Doesn't Penny very explicitly have a dwarf father who taught her how to survive around other big people?
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Oct 19, 2015 08:08
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RCarr posted:Oh! Oh! I need a book to read. Where do I start? Start at The Darkness That Comes Before. Word of warning, if ASOIAF is a 7 out of 10 on the bleak darkness scale, Bakker's Second Apocalypse series is a solid 10. It is very well-written and it's by no means a dumb grimdark series, definitely one of the most affecting set of books I have ever read, but you've been warned.
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Nov 19, 2015 05:46
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I'm optimistic for a holiday release.
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Feb 26, 2016 18:24
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